Booksellers Hear Details of the Much-Delayed Google Editions

When Google Editions goes live, which still could be six months from now, the Web sites of booksellers who participate in ABA’s IndieCommerce will go live with it. But independents won’t be Google’s only partners, ABA could be selling e-books alongside Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble. Those were among the revelations at the New England Independent Bookseller Association fall conference held last week in Providence, R.I., in a session about how the partnership between ABA and Google Editions will work.

Former Harvard University Press sales director turned Google strategic partner development manager Chris Palma discussed what a Google Editions enabled IndieCommerce site will look like. He also displayed a potential mock up for San Francisco’s Books Inc. (booksinc.net), Google Book Search head Dan Clancy’s favorite bookstore. The site will contain tabs allowing customers to click on Books, Google e-Books, and Other e-Books. Under ABA’s upgrade of IndieCommerce to be completed by the end of the month, customers will also be able to search for e-books as part of the collapsed product search. Google Editions-enabled sites will use Google’s search-inside feature, introduced several years ago. And publishers will be able to bundle print books with e-books as part of the Google program.

With Google Editions, said Palma, “the role of publishers and booksellers as gatekeepers is going to become stronger. People are going to realize that free is not best.” He described Google’s role as a wholesaler like Ingram or Baker & Taylor. Under the agency model, Google will act as an agent on behalf of the publisher and prices will be fixed across the board. Still, the fact that Google will also be selling direct on its site gave some booksellers pause. As one commented, “it’s kind of like the fox watching the henhouse.” Palma praised booksellers for being able to curate, adding that what Google excels at is selling ads, $26 billion worth; it has not needed to sell e-books. Kenny Brechner, owner of Devaney Doak and Garrett Booksellers in Farmington, Maine, was not convinced: “You’re not good at bookselling yet. Over time you’ll be creating a curatorial model.”